1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention generally relate to radio frequency identification RFID) authentication systems and, more specifically, to an improved RFID authentication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Entities, such as governments, corporations, business, etc., often have secured soft and hard assets (i.e., secured electronic and physical property, respectively). Secured hard assets can comprise, for example, secured facilities, secured areas with a secured facility, secured equipment (e.g., file cabinets, computers, etc.) within a secured area, etc. Secured soft assets can comprise secured electronic data, for example, electronic folders, files, documents, programs, images, videos, etc. The security levels for such soft and hard assets may further vary (e.g., from low to high). Current user authentication methodologies for allowing access to secured assets revolve around manual user authentication protocols and identification (ID) badges or cards. Some ID badges (or cards) use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags (i.e., RFID transponders) for user authentication.
For example, a typical RFID authentication system comprises a RFID tag (i.e., an RFID transponder), a RFID reader (i.e., a RFID interrogator), and a host device (e.g., a computer). The RFID tag comprises an integrated circuit device and, particularly, a memory device programmed with authentication (i.e., identifying) information and an antenna, for transmitting the authentication information, when activated. The RFID reader also comprises an antenna. The RFID reader antenna transmits a radio frequency signal to activate and, thereby initiate transmission of the authentication information by the RFID tag antenna. The RFID reader antenna further receives (i.e., reads) the transmitted authentication information and communicates the read authentication information to the host device. The host device then authenticates the user (i.e., verifies the identity of the user) that is requesting assess to secured soft or hard assets, based on the received authentication information. Unfortunately, such RFID authentication systems do not allow for different levels of user authentication protocols based on different security-levels associated with the assets. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a self-contained, security-level based and hard-ware based secure access methodology to soft and hard assets.